A couple of week’s ago we were glued to the telly, eyes agog, watching the nation’s favourite gardener wading about knee deep in a mass of grassy leaf litter.

Bless you Monty, for reminding me of “jobs you can be getting on with this weekend”.

Grasses are very low maintenance plants yet what needs doing, needs doing in good time. Monty was right to remind me to pick up the pace. Faced with three mass plantings containing hundreds of grasses one solution is to bring in a couple of helpers armed with power tools and to stock up on chocolate biscuits. Each year we get a few steps closer to getting the job done as quickly, neatly, and efficiently as possible.

The little meadow has just had its first birthday. As expected Deschampsia cespitosa* is looking a little more urchin-like than it did last year. There’s no sign of the molinia, as the only truly deciduous native grass we grow in UK gardens it collapses in a heap in the run-up to Christmas, then likes a long lie-in until soil temperatures rise. Knowing this, there were two plans. Plan A was to treat it to a severe haircut once we’d cleared the spent molinia. Plan B was to leave the remains of the deschampsia to see how it stood over the winter months. Curiousity got the better of me, through the later part of the winter I watched how the remains of the light and airy deschampsia fared as weekly storms swept through the garden.

Strimming the meadow mid-February

In mid-February they looked like a pile of Pick-Up Sticks, so as soon as we had a break in the weather, out came the strimmer. Deschampsia is a native semi-evergreen grass, it was already in active growth. A 5″ cut was as low as seemed sensible. The stubborn thatch held at the base of the plant ducked below the strimmer blades.

Frosted deschampsia planted in rough grass February 2016

In comparison, a test patch of deschampsia planted in turf under the walnut trees looked emerald green in February. These were strimmed to ground level back in late November along with the rough grass. As a result they have recovered well and are now showing as much neater, tufty mounds.

The meadow just before it was cut in February : Molinia is the straw coloured one, front right

All things considered, I think it best to stick to Plan A : to strim them sooner rather than later. Weeding may be easier too, goodness knows what’s lurking beneath the thatchy mats. Although a combination of tall forms of molinia underplanted with airy deschampsia works brilliantly throughout the spring, summer and autumn, being blitzed by the winter Breacon Blasts proves too much for airy stems.

For total staying power through to early spring I depend on fail-safe cultivars of Calamagrostis and Miscanthus sinensis, they look so good in their late winter finery that I sigh when the time comes to cut them down.

The terrace : Calamagrostis xacutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and ‘Overdam’

Cutting Calamagrostis in mid-Febrary it showed green growth

Three weeks ago it was the terrace’s turn. After a bit of deliberation, two extra pairs of hands armed with snippers helped me cut back the banks of calamagrostis. Even though the job was done by hand it only took until coffee time. The hedge cutter’s heavy duty blades chewed up the fine dried flowering stalks and spat them everywhere. Investing in a set of handy, lightweight rechargeable electric clippers would be a good idea, they’d work better on the fine, brittle stems. I’m told a saw-edged grass hook does a good job too.

Lily checking the re growth mid-March

Now that the grassy screen is gone Lily is missing her games of hide-and-seek with the voles.

When the day came to cut the miscanthus down I was out bright and early to tie up two hundred-odd stands of tall stems of Miscanthus ‘Malepartus’ into tepees. On such a beautiful morning I knew I was in for a final treat. The hazy sunlight filtering through the trees set the fluffy plumes alight like a row of flaming torches.

Heavy duty hedge cutters are the perfect solution for cutting tall stands of stout-caned grasses. In a couple of hours the miscanthus hedge was cleared and cut into mulch sized lengths (the sheaves were laid across the log saw horse). The results were a neat buzz cut, very little debris to clear from the crowns, plus two builder’s bags full of straw.

There’s a 19 second video (January 2015) which shows how the McBrides at Sussex Prairies clear their vast mass plantings which were designed to be razed by fire. (I hope the link will play.)This method is explained by Pauline in her post ‘A Burning Question’. The motto of their garden which is set in several acres of former farmland is “Daring to Disturb the Universe”. The big question for me is, dare I disturb the neighbours? 😉

*Deschampsia cespitosa is a prolific self-seeder, it’s a beautiful, short-lived grass. In time I may replace it with divisions of Seslaria autumnalis that I’m growing-on in nursery beds. At this time of year the two semi-evergreen grasses look very similar and can be strimmed in the same way. In the first meadow image there is one Seslaria on the left hand corner.

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17 thoughts on “Bringing In the Sheaves”

Yesterday I did what you’d advised me to do in March: moved and cut down the Anemanthele. I was surprised to see Monty just combing his, but it looked a much younger specimen. Mine are far too woody. I’ve no shortage of offspring. Perhaps after this year I should ditch the older ones and replace with the youngsters?

Funny you should mention that (I wasn’t going to go on record disagreeing with the great MD) it’s not how I groom mature anemanthele. I grow hundreds of them, production line fashion and the best way I’ve found is to cut them back by a third and replace them every five or years because as you notice they can get woody. You’ll be aware that short-lived plants are often the most prolific self-seeders (; .

Gosh what a management challenge but I guess when you’ve done it once you get into a rhythm.each year. The image of the Miscanthus ‘Malepartus’ backdrop to the M. ‘Starlight’ makes the effort for those two alone so worth the effort. Gorgeous, inspiring planting.

Perhaps growing lots of the same grasses in one easily accessible area makes it easier to deal with them? The back garden is full of mixed plantings containing lots of different grasses – relatively speaking, it takes me longer. Thank you, you’re quite right, the grasses look great for such a long time, the annual effort is worthwhile.

Great job! I have to remember to cut back my Miscanthus quite early as the shoots always appear earlier than I think they should. It is always sad and they still look perfect. For me the Calamagrostis collapse by Christmas if not before, again I think that is due to it being early into growth. I try to comb the Stipa tenusdima but there are a lot so some of the less visible ones are usually just cut down or I take the easy option and just pull them out and leave new plants for this year.

It’s interesting to hear how conditions differ, it can make a big difference to how plants fare, as you’ve said before your Miscanthus cultivars behave differently.I find Miscanthus (and other warm season grasses) often show stalled ‘green’ shoots from last autumn which I cut out rather than cut around. I guess light/temp levels fall faster in the UK than in Italy? I’ve cut around them by hand before now, but they don’t seem to thrive as well as true new shoots.

I’d have to check, but if I recall correctly the magic marker for Miscanthus as a C4 grass is soil temps. around 60F. I guess it’s the same for other Asian warm season grasses? Today I’ve been cutting back pennisteums here, mostly still dormant, but P. alopecuroides looks and smells to be in new growth. P. villosum in the green house unusually shows a lot of green too. Bit early, along with Easter this year. Have a lovely bank holiday weekend, Christina.

Kate, this is packed with useful and interesting information, I hardly know where to start. Anyhow, this has worked to remind me to crack on with a few things. I cut most of the grasses that I grow two or three weeks ago and the one I debate about most is miscanthus because there always seems green active growth in some of the stems (at ~8 inches), so it is with some relief to hear your exchange with Christina. Nice trick with tying the bundles in advance, I don’t know why I bundle them afterwards and not before! P. villosum I do in two phases; to ~8inches to leave some winter protection and then to ground when I see some sign of regrowth. I haven’t done that yet, so I must go look. Thanks

I shall bear in mind you’re dual cut method with P. vIllosum next year, thanks Alison. When it comes to Miscanthus here I’m pretty sure we’re looking at stalled autumnal growth – I read it helps cutting round it in cooler, greyer climates and I did try this, I was especially interested when it came to the shy to flower variegated forms. It seemed to make for weaker overall growths the following season. In my garden variegated Miscanthus flowers shyly, best in years when we have early warm ground temperatures. Best so far, spring-summer 2014. I grow 40 varieties because whether some of them flower or not I just love them!

I was told not to cut down ever green grasses such as Anemanthele, I just comb mine using a dog comb. They usually survive three or four years. It just shows there are almost as many different ways to garden as gardeners!

Very interesting, Brian, a dog comb is an original solution! One of the things that caught my attention when I was reading Lawrie Metcalf was when he said never to cut anemanthele down to ground level – he meant even in native New Zealand. Ten years ago, when I first started growing this grass there was little ‘agreed’ information to guide Uk growers.

Interesting post Kate. I was surprised to see last week at Wisley how good the grass border was still looking, despite the wind and rain this winter, it really was one of the best areas of the garden. Tom Stuart-Smith’s glasshouse borders looked bad, but tbh I’ve not been impressed since they were planted and often think TS-S is a pale imitator of the great Piet. You are developing a wonderful system for cutting down your grasses. I think looking, listening and thinking is the essence of being a good gardener and you do all three so well. I cut back my five Calamagrostis Karl Foerster* this week because I was mulching the garden and I had space in the compost bin for the cuttings. They are always very slow into new growth so I’m never in a hurry.
* I now think the one C.KF I bought 10 years ago was mis-labelled and it is actually a Panicum. No matter, it has been divided a couple of times over the years and adds welcome winter structure to my sunniest south-facing border.

What an interesting and thoughtul comment,thank you and lovely to hear from you. What you say confirms how well grasses have done this winter in Wisley. There are two TS-T gardens not far from here, Broughton Grange has a magnificent mass planting of M.Malepartus I’m dying to see for myself. Your beautiful panicum is doing well, I have less luck with them in my garden. They’re slow off the mark, warm season like the miscanthus, so you’re right, no rush! Enjoy your weekend, too windy here for gardening, hope the weather’s better where you are.

An interesting and informative post Kate. I found it useful as I am never quite sure when to cut different grasses back. Your grasses are wonderful but what a major operation cutting them all back is. You seem very well organised though.

Half-acre of mass planting takes 20 hours maintenance a year, in spring : cutting,weeding and mulching. I think that makes for great value from plantings which deliver for 10 months of the year. Evergreens cause consternation. I’ve had my share of disappointments (bronze forms of carex which should be ‘easy’) plus fabulous surprises (chionoclhoas which should be ‘hard’). Evergreens are next on my to-do list, I’ll be interested to hear how other people get on with maintaining them.